Author Archives: ShannonCStanley

On April 22 Marchers took to the streets of Washington, D.C. in support of science. The march was broadcast over a multitude of social media sites and the news. In the spirit of Earth Day, many signs raised up in protest for creating awareness of climate change.

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The March for Science in D.C. was led byBill Nye (the science guy). It was estimated to have 40,000 protesters. The main reason for the march was to protest against budget cuts being made to the Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, and NASA’s Earth research programs under President Trump’s 2018 budget proposal.

Morgantown was one of two locations in West Virginia, the other being Huntington, that hosted a science march in accordance with the D.C. march. Roughly 500 people attended the march in Morgantown, and protesters gathered in Woodburn circle. Science departments, professors and students partook in the event, and Fourteen of twenty organizations in the Morgantown March were affiliated with WVU.

The march for science was meant to show that scientists are not elitists and to help raise awareness for the possible budget cuts being made in 2018.

The President of DownstreamStrat, Evan Hansen, spoke during the event about water quality and keeping it safe for the community.

In an article written by the D.A., it is mentioned that local scientists are the only reason trout supply has returned to Deckers Creek. This was made possible through the development of a new filtration device that helped filter pollutants from the water that were introduced by acid mine drainage in the creek.

Engineering and agricultural departments also participated in the march. These are two fields of study that many forget to include when thinking of science, but engineering at WVU is one of the largest departments, if not the largest, and many students studying engineering are going to be entering the work field, this goes for many majors at the university (medical comes to mind), with budget cuts hindering their scientific advancements.

This march wasn’t for scientists that want more money. It was for science lovers that want to see a future worth living in—a world that isn’t suffering from climate change or lack of progress.

Shannon Stanley: This marks the end of my group blogging days, but I will still be around on Twitter. In your free time you can also check out my other blog about Video Games. Thanks for reading!

The State of West Virginia has over 15,000 illegal dump sites and spends more than $1 million every year to remove litter from state highways. According to the EPA, nationwide the cost of clean up is $115 million, but those are all dry ground sites. Perhaps tougher to clean up, are sites where people dump their trash into streams and rivers. The New River Gorge is one state water site that is combating hundreds of illegal dumps and roadside trash sites that create both aesthetic and health and safety problems.

In 2009 The Monongalia County Litter Control collected close to 10,000 pounds of trash from illegal dumping sites like one on Martin Hollow Road in Morgantown. Couches, chairs, mattresses, box springs, commodes and televisions were cleaned up from the site. (GreenEcoServices)

Any person who disposes of items weighing, but not exceeding, more than 100 lbs or 27 cubic feet in size is guilty of a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, he or she is subject to a fine of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000, or in the discretion of the court, sentenced to perform community service by cleaning up litter from any public highway, road, street, alley or any other public park or public property, or waters of the state, as designated by the court, for not less than eight nor more than sixteen hours, or both.

Any person who disposes of items weighing more than 100 lbs or 27 cubic feet in size, but less than five hundred pounds is guilty of a misdemeanor. Upon conviction he or she is subject to a fine of not less than $1,000 nor more than $2,000, or in the discretion of the court, may be sentenced to perform community service by cleaning up litter from any public highway, road, street, alley or any other public park or public property, or waters of the state, as designated by the court, for not less than sixteen nor more than thirty-two hours, or both.

Any person who disposes of items weighing more than 500 lbs or 216 cubic feet in size is guilty of a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, the person is subject to a fine not less than $2,500 or not more than $25,000 or confinement in jail for not more than one year or both.

Fines. Courts impose fines to penalize defendants. These fines vary greatly, depending on the circumstances. For misdemeanors, the fine may be as little as for a traffic ticket, but for felonies, fines can be thousands of dollars. Some fines can accrue daily until the illegally dumped waste is cleaned up.

Probation. A person on probation regularly meets with a probation officer and fulfills other terms and conditions, such as maintaining employment and attending counseling.

Community service. Courts often include as a part of probation the requirement that the defendant work for a specified number of hours with court-approved organizations, such as charities.

Restitution. Courts often require defendants to pay for any damage they caused to someone’s property by their illegal dumping.

Remediation. Courts may require defendants to clean up and repair property damaged by their illegal dumping.

The Difference Between Littering and Illegal Dumping:

The difference is determined by type and volume of waste. Disposing of typical waste and garbage, such as empty beverage bottles is littering.

Dumping a large amount of waste, such as bags full of garbage or an appliance, would be illegal dumping.

The type of waste is also important. Disposing of a toxic chemical or hazardous items such as a car battery may count as dumping. The size of these hazardous materials may be relatively small, but since they pose an immediate threat to the environment, size is not as relevant.

Land Dump Site In the Morgantown Area:

Illegal dump sites are often remote areas found at the most outer parts of residential areas. The sites are where people dump their garbage without paying someone else to take care of it.

Cathy Kinsly, a local Kindwood resident, lives near an illegal dump site on Mayfield Road. She says that the site has been there for over 50 years, but people continue to drop off their trash. “I think a lot of the same people return, yet there is always different cars going up the hill,” kinsly says, “…A lot of it is done at night. You don’t even see who does it. I believe a lot of it is out from other communities.”

This site, when I visited, primarily consisted of tires, mattresses and bags of trash, but Kinsly says that in the past it was mostly larger materials such as refrigerators and appliances. “They probably can get money now for the cars and appliances and they know it, so they take those to the recycling shop and the household garbage is still tossed,” Kinsly says, “It angers us because there are signs up. It just makes our properties look bad, but so far there is not much we can do about it, but try to clean it up.”

Reasons For Illegal Dumping:

In every city there are municipalities set up to take in the communities garbage. Monongalia County Solid Waste Authority is responsible for retrieving and transferring waste. The Solid Waste Authority is owned by Republic Services. Signing up for services can be done on their website. However, you must sign up before receiving a quota for your trash pickup costs. This can turn a lot of potential customers away. The price is not plainly stated. Most people don’t want to deal with the hassle of taking their trash to a dump or transfer station and companies like Republic Services don’t provide the cost up front. Therefore, due to the reasons below, people decide to illegally dump.

Trash near and around the city of Morgantown is disposed of at a transfer station. Monongalia County does not have a landfill. The transfer station is located in Morgantown Industrial Park (3788 Morgantown Industrial Park, Morgantown, WV 26501)

People can also rent a dumpster from Republic Services to help with discarding larger garbage that they cannot take themselves.

Transfer Station Hours:

Often people have materials in their homes that they don’t know how to properly dispose of. These common household items end up sitting in our garages or basements where they can be out of sight and out of mind, but below are proper ways to dispose of 5 common household items.

5 Household items you may not know how to dispose of:

There are many items that people possess, but sometimes they aren’t familiar with how to properly dispose of them. Live Science gives some suggestions on how to recycle hazardous materials.

Motor Oil- To dispose of motor oil, place in a clear, sealed container and take it to a car service station or automotive store.

Electronics- The EPA offers help with disposing of electronics. Many places, such as Best Buy, will take old electronics and recycle them for you.

Paint- 1-800-cleanup can be contacted for oil based paints. If paint is latex based then it must be dried out. For less than one inch of remaining paint it can be air dried. For larger amounts you can use cat litter by mixing it into the paint. Once the paint is dry it can be disposed of in the regular trash.

Batteries- Call 1-800-batteries for information on disposal. Sometimes stores, like Walmart, take old car batteries and recycle them for you.

Light-bulbs-Websites such as Earth911 can help find recycling locations near you. Stores such as Home Depot will also take fluorescent light bulbs and recycle them.

The Life Span of Commonly Thrown Away Items:

Cigarette Butt: 1-5 years

Plastic Bag: 10-20 years

Aluminum Can: 200-500 years

Glass Bottle: 1 million years

Residents of the state of West Virginia can help to alleviate the problem of illegal dumping in the state by practicing prevention and helping to clean up already existing sites. Apart from residential help, the state increased fines for illegal dumping in 2010. According to the Charleston Gazette, cities and counties work with the DEP to step up enforcement in problem areas. Motion cameras are installed to catch violators in the act, but more can be done if West Virginians become more aware of the issue.

This week is all about Blue Hole and one of the biggest issues when it comes to this tranquil retreat is the amount of injuries that occur.

At Blue Hole the Jenkinsburg bridge looms over the blue water. For some the bridge adds to the scenic beauty, but for others it adds temptation.

It is unclear about the exact height of the bridge. I have read multiple news sources that all give varying heights. The Charleston Gazette says that it is 63-feet high. The Daily Athenaeum says it’s 75-feet, but one thing is certain, any fall/jump from the bridge could result in major injury.

Blue Hole is a popular place to hang out for students and locals during the summer, but when you mix alcohol and heights, which many do, things are bound to go wrong.

The need to jump may seem odd, but when you watch the video below, it becomes clear that coercion can be the main driving factor.

This video was published in 2013. The young man jumping from the bridge is peer pressured for most of the video to jump, but when he finally does, the landing isn’t so smooth.

The comment feed below reveals that the man needed rescued and suffered a concussion.

On this video, there was a more recent comment where someone complained about fracturing his vertebrae as a result of jumping from the Jenkinsburg bridge. People still continue to jump even though many accidents have been reported at Blue Hole.

In 2008 a young man was reported dead after drowning in the waters at Blue Hole. He was caught in a current and unable to escape, and a 19-year-old girl was also injured when jumping from the bridge the same year.

Andrew Coleman, a former forestry and wildlife management student at West Virginia University, has been to Blue Hole roughly eight to ten times and talks about his own experiences.

He says that people get drunk and aren’t responsible. “Usually it’s not that bad, but people do leave a lot of their shit,” says Coleman. ” I watch people jump the bridge which is a good 30-40 feet above the water. A couple years ago a girl jumped and broke her back. She was paralyzed.”

These injuries can be life changing, but what makes it worse is that help may be delayed when trying to come to the rescue. It’s not only the bridge that is dangerous, but also the roads to reach Blue Hole.

“There are two ways to get there. One way is dangerous. There is a quad trail that gets washed out a lot. It’s really scary to go down,” says Coleman.

This can be a problem for those visiting Blue Hole for the first time that are unaware of the two entrances, which could cause more accidents, but the ones who need the road the most, first-responders, are experiencing difficulties.

The Preston County Journal even wrote an article about how the road conditions affect accessibility for firefighters. This article was written in 2015, but it’s a problem that has always made it more difficult for medics, firefighters and police officers to reach the secluded area.

Chief Dan Luzier of Masontown’s Volunteer Fire Department told the Preston County Journal, “Ambulances cannot get down to the location from Masontown,” Luzier explained. “So, for example, if we have a patient who has a spinal injury, trying to get them to the ambulance on the back of the Gator can be dangerous.” (This is a direct quote from the article. )

Accidents at Blue Hole can become much worse when emergency vehicles experience difficulties reaching the location and if help is unable to reach the area, it could mean more serious injuries or fatalities, and If help is able to reach the area, according to Luzier it could mean being flung around in the back of a gator while suffering from serious wounds. Remember to be safe when enjoying the swimming hole because one jump from the bridge could effect you for the rest of your life.

In our busy lives it’s sometimes hard to remember to take the extra time to recycle, but West Virginia University has made some improvements to help get everyone started and to help increase the amount recycled on and off campus.

Within the last year, the university has implemented new methods to help improve recycling on campus. According to Stephanie Toothman, a Conservation Specialist in the Office of Sustainability at West Virginia University, the university switched to single stream recycling. This means that instead of having to separate recycled materials, they can all be combined when being collected.

On top of switching to single stream recycling, the university has also begun requiring employees to take out their own trash and recyclables. These methods were modeled after other schools. “It is becoming more of a common practice. We took it to the next level. We implemented an ’empty your own trash’ policy at the same time,” says Toothman, “By implementing [these methods] more recycling was actually happening. People are more mindful when you put the responsibility on the employees.”

Employees were issued two bins. One meant for recycled materials and the other for trash. They are responsible for taking them to designated areas. According to Toothman, now that maintenance employees are no longer going into each individual office to empty bins, they have more time for other duties such as cleaning stairwells, carpets, etc. more frequently, which helps to promote cleanliness in campus buildings.

When the university implemented single stream recycling and ‘take out your own trash’ methods, the office of sustainability only expected a 35 percent increase in recycled materials. To their surprise, West Virginia University actually increased its materials recycled by 60 percent. It almost doubled compared to what they expected! Toothman says, “The highest we had heard was 35 and we thought, ‘Hey, that’d be great!’ After one year of data we were ecstatic to see 60 percent.”

The university has also begun new trends for move in and move out day and has even started issuing each dorm room with its own recycling bin. I wish we had that when I was a freshman, but better late than never.

On move in days, the Office of Sustainability realized that a lot of cardboard was being thrown away from students unpacking. Out of the total recycled on campus, cardboard makes up more than 50 percent of materials. Now, on move in days they collect cardboard from students to recycle. In 2016 the university recycled 11 tons of cardboard on move in day.

The university has also started taking students’ unwanted materials when they move out, such as mini fridges, clothes, furniture, etc. The event is called Blue and Gold Mine Sale and materials are collected and then put in a type of yard sale. The university collaborates with United Way, and all proceeds earned from the yard sale are then given to United Way. In 2016 the university raised $14,000 and helped keep 25 tons from being sent to a landfill.

One of the most exciting things, in my opinion, is that W.V.U. is currently participating in a recycling competition called RecycleMania. The competition began in February and lasts eight weeks. In the ‘Totaled Recycled’ category, W.V.U. has collected 256,130 pounds of materials and ranked 54th out of 202. Under ‘Waste Minimization, we have ranked 34th out of 125. There were 350 universities entered in the competition. Toothman says that the event was hosted on the concept of an even playing field. Since there were different student populations for each university, it was taken into consideration when judging the final amount recycled.

Apart from recycling, the university has also been researching ways to conserve electricity usage by monitoring meters across campus. It also provides recycling options for electronics through collaboration with a private electronics vendor, alkaline battery recycling and four outdoor textile recycling stations. The textile stations are located near Stansbury Hall, the Student Recreation Center, Mountaineer Station and Health Sciences. These stations are available to the public.

A lot of new students come and go at West Virginia University, so Toothman says that it can be hard to get the word out and keep it out. At least every four years there is a new whole new batch of students and it can be difficult to keep them informed.

Toothman gives presentations weekly to during new employee orientations to help inform them of the university’s recycling and trash program. She says, “I think that it’s been really helpful because they are learning immediately.”

“President Gee mentions this often, that we are one W.V.U. When we all get on board, great things will happen,” says Toothman, and I would have to agree based on these results.

If you don’t happen to recycle through the university, here are a few locations that will accept recyclable materials in Morgantown.

Shannon Stanley wishes you a happy Wednesday and hopes that you stay dry during this rainy week. You can follow me on twitter if you’d like to see more of my work or thoughts.

Showers, laundry, and washing dishes—
These are the main things that you use household water for. Not many people can say that they drink from the tap, and it’s become somewhat taboo to do so, but knowing what is in the water you use is important. So, let’s look at where Morgantown gets its water supply and see the data retrieved by Morgantown Utility Board in regards to the quality of the water sources.

Many of us could have guessed that the city takes water from the Monongahela River to supply Morgantown, but they also retrieve it from Cobun Creek. Some of you may not be familiar with Cobun Creek, but it can be found nestled within White Park. There you can find the Cobun Creek Reservoir where the city pulls water from.

Cobun Creek Reservoir. (Photo Taken By: Shannon Stanley)

Utility boards test the quality of the water they are in charge of purifying for public use and then post the results so that anyone can see them. Morgantown Utility Board’s last posting on their website was for 2016. The results from this testing show low numbers which means little contamination from substances such as nitrate, barium, aluminium, zinc, etc.

These low numbers could be from MUB updating their treatment facility in 2012. In an interview with WBOY in 2016 Chris Dale with MUB says,” Customers can rest assured that our water is very high quality.”

Below are charts released by the utility department in both 2015 and 2016.

These charts show the parts per million(ppm) of substances found in the Monongahela river, but MUB only reported the level of nitrate, fluoride and barium. The other substances were not determined.

2015

2016

The charts below show the amount of substances found in the Monongahela River and the Cobun Creek Reservoir.

2015

2016

When reading this chart, MCL is the highest a contaminant can be in drinking water and MCLG is the maximum contaminant level goal.

So, what does this mean? The quality of the drinking water in Morgantown falls far below the state’s maximum allowance for contamination, but something that I have yet to touch on are the pipes that your water has to travel through to be able to come out of the faucet.

A maintenance worker for the university’s pipes, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “I wouldn’t drink the water. I work on them and I know what’s in there.” He grimaced when explaining that he can’t work on the pipes without being covered in grime afterward. He has even found cock roaches lodged within the pipes.

While the utility board is doing its part, the pipes leading into your residence may need maintaining. Bottled water seems to be the better option if you can’t stand the thought of what might be lurking in your pipes.

Shannon Stanley wishes you a wonderful Wednesday. Remember, you are halfway through your week! You can follow me on Twitter @shannon _Cherrie